Raquel McKenna

How Does Food, Physical Activity, Health Education in Elementary Schools Effect Childhood Obesity?



1. Article From Scholarly Journal (1):

Citation:
Sallis James, F., & Glanz Karen, (2006). The role of built environments in physical activity, eating, and obesity in childhood. The Future of Children, 16(1), 89-108. Retrieved from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/future_of_children/v016/16.1sallis.html
Summary:
This article describes the important factors in a child’s life that can lead a child to a high chance obesity. Throughout the article it reveals that the school’s environment, food and activities play a huge role in effecting childhood obesity in that neighborhood. However, this article also does describe other factors in the neighborhood that can impact childhood obesity.
Reaction:
I believe that this article addresses all of the demanding factors that go into impacting children in a neighborhood that faces a high chance for obesity. However the author does relate all of the concerns back to the school environment/ role; there are other factors that go into influencing children and their chance for obesity, such as their proximity to a playground and their parent’s health. This relates back to our main concern in Rhode Island schools because it addresses the fact that to change the rate of a neighborhood’s obesity rate it will require the efforts of everyone in the neighborhood so that all of the factors can have a positive impact on a child’s life as opposed to only being positively influenced by one factor.

2. Analysis Article (1):

Citation:
Sack Kevin. (2007, October 20). Schools found improving on nutrition and fitness. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/health/20junkfood.html?scp=7&sq=How does food, physical activity, health education in Elementary Schools effect childhood obesity?&st=cse
Summary:
This article describes and provides an ample amount of statistics supporting our claim that schools can decrease the amount of childhood obesity. Also this article reveals a larger connection to childhood obesity with a national revelation of a response of the American society as a whole, as opposed to just the education system.
Reaction:
This article brought to my attention that the concern with childhood obesity has a larger underlying concern with our entire society; implying that if we start of this lifestyle change in schools it will lead to a societal lifestyle change. This article also gave me hard and important facts that other group members and myself will use to support our claims.

3. Editorial (1):

Citation:
Green Adam. (2011, November 10). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://mysunshinehealth.info/2011/11/10/rethinking-millville-schools/
Summary:
This short essay was written by a concerned participant in the Millville Community (in Rhode Island). Green addressed specific concerns in his community and provided possible solutions on how to solve them. At the end of his essay he provided his contact information so that he can gain a support group so that they can attack this problem together.
Reaction:
I am aware that this article’s source is not extremely credible however; I did find it extremely helpful to get an opinion from someone who is affected by childhood obesity in Rhode Island, since that’s what my group is addressing.

4. Editorial (2):

Citation:
Cotter Pamela, R. (2011, October 1). Coast-to-coast exercise relay includes 2 r.i. schools. Providence Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.providencejournal.com/arts-entertainment/lifestyles/fitness/2011/10/kids-urged-to-e.html
Summary:
This article describes a nationwide attempt to attack childhood obesity in schools by having schools from the east coast to the west coast have their entire school workout for an allotted 15 minutes. To the point where there was a school somewhere in the U.S. where the students were working out. This article specifically addresses two Rhode Island Schools that participated in working out for allotted times.
Reaction:
I think that this is an extremely creative way of getting the children and the faculty motivated about changing the rates of childhood obesity in America. Also I believe that by having schools across the nation participate in this activity it broadens the group that will be positively affected by working out. Basically I like the idea of making it a nationwide problem as opposed to only certain states/ areas, it brings a sense of community to the issue and shows the children how important staying healthy should be to our country.

5. Professional Journal (2):

Citation:
Veugelers Paul, J., & Fitzgerald Angela, L. (2005). Effectiveness of school programs in preventing childhood obesity: A multilevel comparison. American Journal of Public Health, 95(3), 432-435. Retrieved from http://0-www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.helin.uri.edu/pmc/articles/PMC1449197/?tool=pmcentrez
Summary:
This article describes an experiment that determined that school programs are effective in preventing childhood obesity. The people that conducted the research asked for feedback from the students/ faculty who participated in the school programs to prevent/study childhood obesity.
Reaction:
I thought this article was extremely helpful for collecting my thoughts and opinions towards the effectiveness of school programs in preventing childhood obesity because it’s showed me the cause and effect of school programs. Because the results were found in a controlled environment it also revealed to me that there are other factors affect the school programs in the environments.

6. Summary Article (1):

Citation:
Winter, S. M. (2009). Childhood Obesity in the Testing Era: What Teachers and Schools Can Do!. Childhood Education, 85(5), 283-288.
Summary:
This summary reveals solutions on how to address this childhood obesity epidemic through designing a school action plan, diet and health plans and other examples.
Reaction:
This summary revealed multiple well thought out objectives or possibilities for schools to follow. Also this summary employed legit reasons why schools should want to enforce a promotion/plans to prevent childhood obesity.